School is a place where students exercise their minds by learning and growing in knowledge. Academics become more and more important as education becomes more and more competitive. While the classroom may help children succeed in life, it may hinder their physical activity. This inactivity can lead to a state of poor health that progressively gets harder to reverse as the child grows.

According to the American Heart Association, 1/3 of U.S. children are overweight.

Heads or tails? With a simple cointoss, the future homes of two fraternities were decided. Pi Kappa Phi and Sigma Phi Epsilon, the Sig Ep President Clayton Simons said, determined their future residences in a coin toss last winter. Both fraternities are now housed in the former girls' dormitory, Wiggins Hall , alongside the new sorority, Gamma Phi Beta and freshmen males.

Both fraternities were previously housed in Milton Daniel Hall, which now houses freshman and honors students.

So far the Democratic-controlled Congress has not done much in the way of legislation. Seemingly, it has spent more time exercising Congressional oversight. Say what you will. However, this Congress achieved at least one clear success by pushing through an increase in the federal minimum wage, which President Bush signed into law on May 25. The bill provides for a three-stage 70 cents increase. The first stage, effective on July 24, increased the federal minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to $5.85. By July 24th, 2009, the federal minimum wage will reach $7.25 per hour.

Despite prior warnings, some students had their first taste of alcohol violations before ever stepping foot in a classroom.There were six on-campus alcohol violations since the first day of move-ins, but Sparkle Greenhaw, associate director of alcohol and drug education, said this is not an unusual occurrence.

"Just as soon as students get back on campus, we start getting alcohol violations," Greenhaw said. "The majority of violations come from first-year students."

Last semester's online course evaluation trial proved unsuccessful because of low student participation.Before the online course evaluations get a second trial, students must first understand the implications of course evaluations.

Forty-one percent of the student body responded to the online evaluations compared to 75 percent who filled out the paper-and-pencil Student Perception of Teaching evaluations during class, said Catherine Welhburg, executive director of the Office for Assessment and Quality Enhancement.

After last semester's online course evaluation pilot test, the faculty evaluation committee reported the study was unsuccessful because of a low student response rate found.Catherine Wehlburg, executive director of the Office for Assessment and Quality Enhancement, said, "A reason we had unsuccessful rates was because over 1,000 evaluations were caught in the TCU spam filters so by the time the e-mails were sent back out, the timing was off due to finals week."

Whether it's during class or out at the movies, text messaging, instant messages and e-mails have grown in popularity among the adolescents of this generation to the point where it has arguably changed the communication landscape. That changing landscape of electronic communication has forced the NCAA to ban the use of text messaging as part of the recruiting process for college athletics.

From Fort Worth to New York City and all places in between, TCU graduate Adam Golka is making a name for himself.After being awarded the Gilmore Young Artist Award, Golka is now traveling the country, playing in major concert halls, said Dana Ramos, Golka's agent..

The Gilmore Award is given to two students under the age of 22 every two years. Each recipient receives $15,000 to further his or her musical career..

The candidates for the award are judged discreetly instead of in competition form for musicianship and performing abilities over a long period of time.

TCU's vaunted defense took a blindside hit this week as James Vess was ruled ineligible to play this season. Vess, a junior defensive tackle from Fort Worth, was one of nine starters slated to return for a defense that ranked No. 2 in total defense in the country last season. Despite the season-long suspension, head coach Gary Patterson said he was informed Tuesday that Vess is still allowed to practice with the team.

The president of the Brite Divinity School said he hopes through his background in the history of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) he can help the church evolve with the changing times instead of dwelling in the past. President Newell Williams was elected as moderator of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) this summer at the church's biennial general assembly in Fort Worth.